Modern mobile networks are optimized for content-rich multimedia applications for human subscribers. Such networks have been designed based on human communication characteristics that require low latency, always-on, delay intolerant and time sensitive network interaction.
However, maintaining such networks requires huge investments from Mobile Network Operators. Human subscribers may generate enough revenue to recoup these investments, but Machine Type Communication (MTC) devices tend to generate significantly lower revenues. Human subscribers and MTC devices also tend to use network resources differently. For example, the number of control plane messages in relation to the amount of data consumed is relatively small for human subscribers in comparison to MTC devices. MTC devices often transmit small amount of data frequently to an application server. But each data session may require several control messages to establish and teardown network connections. For MTC devices, the number of control messages is therefore high compared to the volume of data transferred. Furthermore, because Mobile Network Operators traditionally bill based on data usage, revenue opportunities may be limited. Additionally, the mobile network may require additional memory resources to support bearers for large numbers of infrequently active MTC devices. These requirements may increase costs and potentially decrease profits for Mobile Network Operators
Excessive control signaling may degrade mobile network performance. Consequently, control signaling by low revenue MTC devices may negatively affect the user experience of high revenue human subscribers. Furthermore, increasing network capacity to handle large numbers of rarely used bearers may increase operational costs. Therefore a need exists for systems and methods for improved management of MTC device communication over mobile networks.